Orwell In America

A play about the great George Orwell meeting his American audience, his American readers—a trip which never in fact occurred: In the first years after World War II the author of Animal Farm is chaperoned during an American book tour by a fetching young woman, whose job is to dissuade Orwell from telling Americans why he is a proud socialist.

“Mr Sutton has created an intriguing scenario, with proficient dialogue.”

Ken Jaworowski, The New York Times

“The premise of a young person accompanying an author of great esteem on a heart-of-America book tour recalls the recent David Foster Wallace movie The End of the Tour, and there is indeed something action-oriented about this production, which skips energetically among hotels and cities and speaking arenas. ‘Time and place are dealt with rather cinematically,’ Sutton said of the play, in an interview… Take the trip with him.”

The Village Voice

“Brilliant… Orwell’s discomfort, loneliness, humor and passion are all developed before us in language that is very much the author’s. It is lively as well as precise.”

Susan Hall, Berkshire Fine Arts